Movie Reviews

Very Different and Great Movie!

Tom C. | New York City, USA | 01/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can't understand the horrible reveiws this movie is getting. I guess if you were born in 1990 and used to seeing explosions every 2 seconds, I guess you would hate this movie. However, if you were born anytime before that like I was where movies had character development and a story that sucks you into it and puts you in their place, then this is a great movie! Now, don't get me wrong, some of the acting is hokey, but the movie takes it's time like it should and the soundtrack helps you feel the lonlieness of space. To prove I'm not the only one that enjoyed this movie, I showed it to 2 other people at 2 separate times and they both enjoyed it as I did. All I can say is, try it. Hey, we all get duped into seeing dumb movies that are pushed as blockbusters in the mainstream, so why not give this a shot. You may be surprised. TC"

Mars Sleeper

Big Al | Southwest, USA | 10/18/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a sleeper among the many Mars exploration films. The story is slow moving; there is no spectacular out-of-this-world battles, no eye-popping special effects, but there is a quiet beauty to the film.

The story was about six Mars explorers on a mission to Mars. The landing module crashed when it encountered unexplained magnetic & gravitational phenomenon, which disrupted its flight computer. The captain died in the crash and the five survivors soon learned that the wreckage could only support two persons for the 26-month wait until the rescue mission arrived. After much angry argument among themselves, the co-pilot (played by Maria Lidon), now in command, decided that the flight doctor (Maria de Mediros) and the flight engineer (Vincent Gallo) had the best chance of survival. The remaining three would leave the module and explore the area where they found the unexplained magnetic & gravitational anomaly, or die trying. It was a somber story of life and death, but there were moments of comedy: shortly after the three explorers left, the crashed module sprung a leak and gone was any hope of survival. The engineer, a young man, wanted to spend the remaining hours making love to the doctor, an attractive young woman, who, exasperated by the man's one-track-mindedness, unleashed her frustration on him in a big way. Little did they know the big surprise waiting for them all.

The film was starred by an international cast of American and Spanish actors & actresses, each speaking their native language. There is language dubbing no matter which spoken language you choose on your DVD. The Martian landscape was filmed on the Spanish island of Lanzarote and the indoor scenes at Panavision Studio in Hollywood. The film was made on a shoestring budget of 5 million dollars. To cut production cost, the sequence in the crashed module was filmed on the same space shuttle interior set used in the production of the film "Space Cowboys".

The director of the film, Maria Lidon, who also played the role of the co-pilot Susana Sanchez in the film, won the "Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver" while Vincent Gallo and Maria de Medeiros were named best actor and actress at the 2002 Fantafestival in Rome."